Police began returning to their posts in the Egyptian capital on Monday, seeking to restore order after days of looting, but they stayed away from the protester-thronged square that has become the epicenter of the movement to oust President Hosni Mubarak.

Police and protesters clashed across Egypt on Friday, and opposition leader and Nobel Peace laureate Mohamed ElBaradei was doused by a water cannon before escaping the swinging batons of riot police and taking cover in a Cairo mosque.

President Hamid Karzai, acting under heavy Western pressure, inaugurated the country's new parliament on Wednesday but made plain his pique over being foiled in his efforts to delay the start of the session.

Tens of thousands of demonstrators gathered in the capital of Tunisia on Friday to demand the resignation of President Zine el-Abidine ben Ali even after he gave a major speech the night before promising concessions to a protest movement driven by anger over economic troubles and a lack of political freedoms.

If you thought you couldn't get any lower than the Dead Sea, think again. You can go under it.
Scientists here are drilling 1,640 feet beneath the bottom of the Dead Sea, to a depth of more than 2,600 feet below sea level.

South Korea's government remained on emergency alert Monday night for possible retaliation after staging more than an hour of live artillery exercises on the island that North Korea shelled last month.

Tempers flared Friday as North Korea warned South Korea to cancel artillery drills planned for the same island the North shelled in November, pledging it would answer any provocation with a strike even harsher than last month's deadly attack.